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Business and Politics: Which Drives Which?

Politics and Business appear to more intertwined than ever because politics is so salient and ubiquitous in the current American drama in the aftermath of the financial crisis. The popular charges are contradictory: politics and politicians intervene in business and the economy, and business intervenes, often by non-transparent means, in politics.

We are in an age in which corporations and unions are given first amendment rights while political donations are veiled behind nonprofit organizations (the '527'). Lobbying is viewed as 'information' by many, but as 'legal corruption' by others. The financial crisis has surely rendered these issues more salient, where the stakes riding on regulation are reshuffling the flow of money and contributions.

"Those in a homogeneous group put much less effort into the task at hand in part because they were more interested in avoiding conflict. Diverse environments allowed people to focus on the task instead of their social relationship."

“What makes countries rich is how productively they use their resources…Once a (more productive) technology is introduced, do people use it? Why aren’t people using the most improved technologies to begin with?”

Research Reports

The Sanford C. Bernstein & Co. Center for Leadership and Ethics is the umbrella for all activities and research on leadership, ethics and governance at Columbia Business School.